


The not-so-great Gatsby

by CronkFics (UnicornBooklion)



Category: Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Genre: I try, M/M, The great gatsby rewriting, probably
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-15 08:08:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28560324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnicornBooklion/pseuds/CronkFics
Summary: A rewriting of the great Gatsby's story, written from what I remember of the book (with Sparknote's help) and with some additions to make it a little more openly gay (come on, we all know Nick was simping for Gatsby).
Relationships: Daisy Buchanan/Tom Buchanan, Nick Carraway/Jay Gatsby
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17





	The not-so-great Gatsby

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoy this! As always, comments and kudos are appreciated

In 1922, I moved to New York. Somebody had told me the city was a good place to learn about bond trading, so I decided it would be a great place to start a new life. I was not used to big cities, I had been born and raised in the great Minnesotan plains, but I was sure it would be a great learning experience and, hopefully, a way to make a living and maybe even finally start a family. I still wanted to stay true to my values, though, especially the first of my father's lessons: he always said we should never judge others by our own moral standards, for that way we are bound to misunderstand them, but no human can avoid expediting judgement on occasion. And so I wrongly judged my hero, Jay Gatsby, in the beginning, seeing as he represented everything I hated (mostly the lack of elegance and discretion that came from being one of those "new money" people), and ended up admiring him as I never admired anyone, especially for his gorgeous personality.

As I said before, I moved here in order to learn more about the bond business and hopefully make a living in it. My lodging was located in the West Egg area, in Long island. Here lived the people who had recently made money and so could not live in the more refined East Egg area, mostly because of their lack of connections, always throwing lavish parties and spending money in ways that indicated the absence of taste and sophistication, but they were nonetheless enjoyable. I did not have the money these people had, but I did have some of the East Egg connections they lacked: I had met some terribly interesting people while studying in Yale, including my cousin Daisy's husband, Tom Buchanan, a very intellectual man. I visited their home one night, and was surprised by the quiet in their wealth, as opposed to my neighbors' loud demonstrations. I got to meet Daisy's friend Jordan, a professional golfer, and we had a nice dinner, although slightly tainted by my cousin-in-law's insistence that we read some racist-ass book called _The Rise of the Colored Empires_ , and the fact that Tom got a call from someone Jordan claimed was his lover, a lowly woman living in New York, which made things extremely awkward. I got the feeling that my cousin and her husband were trying to set me up with Jordan, but I did not like the idea much as, although in secret because of its illegality and my will to live, I am actually not interested in women at all, and would rather lay with men.

When I arrived home from this virus-free gathering, I caught a glimpse of my famed neighbor, Jay Gatsby, who was standing in his lawn and doing some really weird arm exercises, reaching toward the water in the river. I was not sure if he was actually reaching toward something important, for all I could see in the distance was a small dot of green light that probably marked the end of a dock, if anything at all. I spent the night laying in my bed and thinking about that strange man, whose entire existence was the most lavish of the wealth displays in the West Egg: he inhabitated an enormous Gothic mansion, and he threw luxurious parties every weekend, for God-knows what reason. I had strange feelings toward him; on the one hand, he seemed to be just as vain as the rest of the area's resident, but an incredibly attractive aura of mystery surrounded him, for no one truly knew where he came from or what kind of person he was, and so I found myself falling in love with the idea of a person.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everybody, happy public domain year! This is kind of a writing exercise to get me back working on my writing (sorry to the people I left hanging on Catrora if you see this) and also something to have fun, as well as a way to procrastinate studying for my finals. I can't promise regular updates, but I've sure had fun writing it so far, so we'll see how it goes.  
> Fun fact: I have no idea whether there actually are any plains in Minnesota, sorry.


End file.
